Medicaid Data Breach Trends: An Analysis

Medicaid agencies and their contractors reported more than 1,200 data breaches in 2016. And while those breaches included only a handful of hacking incidents, one of those affected more than 70 percent of all individuals that were impacted by Medicaid data breaches, according to a new federal watchdog agency report.

In its report, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General says of the 1,260 breaches reported by state Medicaid agencies and their contractors in 2016 - which impacted a total of 515,000 individuals - most were small incidents affecting one to nine individuals and involving unauthorized access/disclosures, such as misdirected letters and faxes.